The resonant orbit of the Lost City meteorite

An integration of the long-period perturbations of Jupiter and Saturn on the orbit of the Lost City meteorite shows that the average nodal rate of the meteorite was nearly the same as the nodal rates of Jupiter and Saturn. This near equality of rates led to a large resonant variation in the inclination of the meteorite's orbit with a period on the order of 1 million years. The resonance makes the orbital evolution too sensitive to the deficiencies of the perturbation calculations and to the values of the elements at impact to allow definitive calculations. It is shown that an orbit similar to the meteorite's orbit can spend approximately 88% of its time with an eccentricity too small to allow for intersections with the earth's orbit. The ordinary cosmic ray exposure age of the Lost City meteorite does not suggest that its collisional lifetime was unusual, but the role of resonances in determining the lifetime of typical meteorites is unknown.